French translations: Best apps according to Which? survey

The best free translation apps have been ranked by native speakers for UK Consumer magazine Which? according to their accuracy.

The Google Translate, DeepL, Apple Translate and Microsoft Translation apps were all found to have certain advantages and disadvantages.

Some, for example, need to be connected to the internet to work while others can translate voice or photo input.

The Which? criteria of accuracy was simply the intelligibility of a menu translated into English from Hindi, Italian and Polish and buying a ticket on a bus.

1. DeepL- “more useful than Google”

Deepl, which claims to be “the world’s most accurate translator”, was praised as “very accurate” by Which?.

However, it was judged to be slightly more limited than Google in offering only 33 languages and requiring an internet connection to work.

2. Google Translate - “Broadly the best choice”

The versatile app, which can translate 243 languages and accepts input via microphone and camera, was judged to have “made some minor mistakes” but performed well for Polish and Italian.

Google translate can also be used offline by downloading languages to your phone.

Read more: Google translate adds Occitan, Breton and minor French languages

3. Microsoft Translation - “a decent job for the most part but there’s no real reason to choose it over Google”

The app, which offers 138 languages, was “second only to Deepl” when translating blocks of text, but with a text recognition system that Which? called “frustrating”.

4. Apple Translate - “Enough errors to make communication confusing”

The least versatile of the apps was also judged to be the least accurate.

Apple Translate only offers 19 languages and “made mistakes in most sentences” when test subjects attempted to buy their bus tickets in Polish and Italian.

Are these results true for French to English translation?

English and French, while particularly close in linguistic terms, consistently present several translation problems.

French for instance, has its own distinctive cultural markers, such as signs of respect like tu and vous or the formules de politesse included at the start and end of an email or letter.

On the other hand, English has a far more extensive regional and technical vocabulary than French making translations into English highly context sensitive.

French tech website 01net.com performed its own review of translation apps in September 2024 prioritising French to English translations.

Its own findings were quite different from those of Which?.

1. Google Traduction

2. Reverso context

3. Microsoft Traducteur

4. DeepL Translator

5. Linguee

6. Say HiTranslate

7. WordReference

8. Clownfish

What is your experience with automatic translation apps? Which one is the best? Are there any that you have learned to avoid? Please let us know via letters@connexionfrance.com